Decisions
by Ultimate Vasto
Summary: Had to rewite this for the public still new to this and I need support and reviews also more views I may be slow at times so bear with me


Date: October 10th;

Time: Six Years After The Death of the Yondaime

Location: Konohagakure

Peaceful. Fun-loving. Not very calm at the moment but definitely festive.

Not exactly words you'd use to describe a village that had gone through three wars and triumphed in all three.

Nope, you'd expect the place to be hidden among maybe rocks or better yet on the top of a mountain in the clouds. Such a place would be hesitant to demilitarize even after other rival villages had already done so.

Sorry, did I just describe both Kumogakure and Iwagakure?

Never mind. They'll factor in later.

Back to Konoha.

I mentioned something about a festival being the cause for the not so calm air the village exuded didn't I?

Well, today marks a very important day in Konoha's history as well as possibly the most important day since the creation of the village.

On this day, six years ago, the most feared (by his enemies) and respected (by his people) man as at then, died.

Yes, October tenth marks the day Namikaze Minato gave his life to end the threat of the monstrous bijū, the Kyūbi no Yōko, by sacrificing his own life.

It also marks the birth of a certain chibi but we'll get there soon enough.

Being well loved and respected, the survivors of the incident made it a point of duty to get together and remember the man's greatness.

That they got to enjoy a day off work to booze off was not a factor. Nope, not a factor at all.

Anyhow, that's enough yapping about that. Introduction's all said and done now so let's get into the story.

—DECISIONS—

'It hurts'.

The only thing he could feel was the pain.

He had been running for hours, hoping to outlast his pursuers.

He knew he didn't stand a chance. That much was obvious. Being six didn't mean he was stupid. No, having fended for himself for over a year, since he was thrown out of the orphanage at age five, he had been forced to mature quickly. He knew things about survival that most adults didn't. He had way more street smarts than practically every one chasing him and his senses were acute enough to put some chūnin to shame.

He didn't know that last part though.

They caught him. It wasn't much of a surprise to him. Knowing all the routes through the village didn't mean squat if his pursuers could simply block off all his routes.

"We finally caught you monster!" a man said.

"N-no! P-p-please! S-stay away!" he cried back out of fear but the words fell onto deaf ears. Not like he was expecting his words to make much of a difference but still. One must try.

And try he did, just that they wouldn't listen.

He received a heavy punch to the face sending him flying into the alley wall. They always cornered him in an alley. More room to deal damage and less time for those men in black armour to find them he supposed. He couldn't suppress the shout of pain as he impacted the wall. Whether or not this was his first time of being mob-beaten (and if you believed that this was his first time by this point, you probably had been beaten too hard, on the skull, with a sledge hammer. That is all.)

"Who gave you the right to speak you cursed demon spawn? Huh?" earning him another punch to his stomach as a breath escaped his lips. Another man stabbed him with a kunai on his forearm "You took my wife away from me! You don't deserve the life Yondaime-sama tried to give you!" he snarled as he stabbed him again. The young boy received more beatings, cuts and bruises. "We will finish what the Yondaime started."

He didn't know how long the beatings continued or when they stopped. He had lost consciousness after the third stab.

He was left on the ground covered with cuts and bruises, bones broken, his left kneecap fractured and both lungs punctured by his own snapped ribs.

What a horrible way to go.

Unless you had a certain mass of unadulterated chakra stuck in your gut...

—DECISIONS—

Deep in his mind, designed to represent a construct of a sewer with pipes running on the wall and water flowing on the floor a growling sound was heard. Moving deeper into the layout to a dimly lit room, a huge gate was seen blocking off the rest of the passage was found. On the central bar of the gate, there was a lock with a strip of paper attached. Written on it was the kanji for seal.

In the darkness of the cage, the great Kyuubi no Yoko stirred.

A great beast with overwhelming power that shouldn't be trifled with, its nine tails swayed behind it and its head rested on its paw. It had one eye cracked open, images of the boy's life flickering through the open eye.

'I am sorry ningen. This is entirely my fault. If only it didn't happen then it wouldn't have turned out like this I hope there is a way...to ... Maybe there is. Yes there is. I promise to do so.'

—DECISIONS—

Back on the street we find a young kunoichi jumping from rooftop to rooftop, a carefree look on her face as she wondered what type of dango to have today and what to go with it. Either red bean soup or tea maybe a nice bottle of sake mmm what a tough choice.

Mitarashi Anko, said young female kunoichi, was a chūnin in her late teens. She had brown, pupil-less eyes and short purple hair. She had a nice body figure that was streamlined from her profession without taking attention away from her well-developed assets.

To cover said body, she was wearing a dark, skin-tight top exposing her mid riff. She also wore dark ANBU tights and a kunai holster on her right thigh with black shinobi sandals.

Having just completed her very profitable shift at the infamous Konohagakure Torture & Investigation Unit, she was heading home to clean up and order a home delivery of her favorite brands of dango and sake when she spotted a small, unmoving, figure in an alley. Curiosity piqued, she jumped down to examine the figure when her eyes widened in shock. 'Oh sweet Kami. How could they do this to him?' The young boy passed out on the floor, was abnormally still and only a quick check proved that he still had a slight pulse indicating that he wasn't dead. 'Thank Kami' she thought. The young boy had bright blond hair and whisker marks on his cheeks. His clothes were torn and bloody cuts still littered his body but on close inspection they were already healing at an accelerated rate.

"Shōsen no jutsu." She called out softly and her palms were enveloped by the warm flames of the Mystical Palm Healing technique. She might have hated him but she had to be thankful for her bastard of a sensei when credit was due. While she wasn't anywhere near even a junior medic, he had taught her how to use this technique to diagnose problems in the body and to deliver first aid treatment to most minor wounds.

She nearly choked as she 'saw' the extent of damage done to his body. "Don't worry Naruto. I'll get you to a hospital. You'll be all patched up in no time."

She gently lifted him into her arms and flickered away in a quick shunshin, heading toward the hospital.

—DECISIONS—

~Hospital~

On arrival at the hospital, Anko found a friend of hers, one she knew had nothing against the blond child in her arms and always looked at Naruto as himself, without the hate, like the other citizens of the village.

"Kasumi-chan"

Said lady replied to "Hey Anko what's the…..Oh my Kami! How is he?"

"Well he's alright I guess but he's unconscious right now."

"Let's get a room for him so I can run diagnostics."

Anko nodded and followed Kasumi to a consultation room where they cleaned the blond boy up and laid him on the bed to rest. She watched as Kasumi perform a medical scan on him for a few minutes after which she turned to her to speak. "It seems the worst of his injuries have been taking care of by some sort of healing ability. The bones have been pulled out of his lungs and realigned and the holes in his lungs are being patched up. His airways have been cleared of the blood but I will need to cut him open a bit to let the blood from his punctured lungs flow out. Beyond that, there's nothing else. All cuts and bruises are gone."

"I'll take him to your office." Anko offered as she gently lifted the boy. "You set up whatever you'll need."

"I'm on it." Kasumi nodded before sprinting ahead to her office.

By the time Anko got there, Kasumi was set and waiting. "Lay him down here. I'll start things up."

—DECISIONS—

"Thank Kami that today's a weekend." Kasumi sighed as she washed her hands. Her small operating room was squeaky clean again and she was just completing procedural protocol by cleaning her hands. "The place would be so much more crowded during the week."

"The festival helped too." Anko added absently. "Nobody wants to be ill on a festive day."

Kasumi, with her hands cleaned, walked over to her patient's side and stroked a finger down his cheek, frowning when he flinched back. "Even in his sleep, he's afraid."

"Yeah." Anko sighed. "Thank you Kasumi. I knew he wasn't liked by the villagers but I never thought they'd take it this far. To be scorned and hated by the villagers is one thing but this? Can't they see the difference between a kunai and a sealing scroll?"

"We were trained to see beyond the normal and look underneath the underneath." Kasumi murmured. "Yet shinobi like us still despise him, how much more the civilians that weren't trained?"

"Still..." Anko's sadness turned into anger fuelled determination. "He doesn't deserve this and I'm going to look after him the best as I can."

"I think that would be good for him."

"It's a good thing that you aren't like them Kasumi. I don't know who I'd have turned to without you here."

"Hey. It's what friends are for right?"

They stayed quiet for a while until a nurse knocked on Kasumi's door.

"I'll be back as soon as I can."

Anko nodded and smiled at the raven haired woman as she left.

After a while of watching him sleep in peace, Anko took a page out of Kasumi's book and moved closer to him to stroke his cheeks, frowning, like Kasumi, when he instinctively flinched away from her touch. 'Don't worry Naruto. I'm gonna make sure no one hurts you again.'

"It's nice to know that he can sleep peacefully after what he's been through today and mostly all of his life isn't it?"

Anko nodded before remembering that Kasumi was no longer in the room with her. Immediately, her fingers dropped into her tights and flung out two senbon needles in the direction of the voice.

Instantly, she felt the coolness of a blade being held against her throat just as the sound of it being drawn reached her ears.

"Calm down Neko." The voice stated and this time, Anko recognized who it belonged to.

She wished the ground would open up and swallow her already.

"Hokage-sama!"

"I believe these are yours, Anko?" He smiled and stretched out his hand, her senbon held in his hand.

"Forgive me, Hokage-sama!" Anko bowed low as soon as she realized that sword was no longer at her neck. "I never realized that it was you."

"No problem Anko." The elderly looking Hokage said. "I understand that you were the one that found him?"

"Hai." Anko sighed. "I couldn't get a look at whoever did it because they had already dispersed."

"Alright." The old man suddenly seemed to age. 'Kami, Minato must hate me right now. His one specific request to me and I fucked it up.'

"Hokage-sama, if I may?"

"Go ahead."

"May I take charge of Naruto?"

There. She'd put it on the table. Yes or no.

The Hokage raised his head to look at her with a confused face and a corked eyebrow. "Explain."

"I would like to keep watch and also train him in the way of being a ninja, that way he can protect himself from the civilians. Also I see myself in him by the way they treat him. I refuse to let that happen anymore. So please with your permission let me do this." She said hoping he would agree with it.

'Hmm this may help him a bit at least he might open up to her than anyone else since they have or are experiencing the same situation. Yes maybe just maybe.' He thought.

"Well Anko that could work for him seeing has he lives alone hardly has any friends I think it might help him."

Anko looked at him with a gleam in her eyes and said "Really? I mean, you mean it?"

"Yes it will be good for him to have someone who is there for him *sigh* I just wonder if he will accept it"

Anko narrowed her eyes when she heard that statement. "What do you mean by that?" The Sandaime looked at her with a bit of guilt and remorse in his eyes as he spoke "I haven't really been there for him as I have been so busy and I can't help him much because of the council so I feel he may be a bit withdrawn from the people in the village. I'm sure he has hardly heard his own name. I just wish it was better for him. I have tried by establishing that no one is to hurt him or mention anything about the Kyuubi to him or the younger generation but it's not helping matters now is it?"

Anko hung her head to shadow her eyes hiding the sorrow and pity in them sympathizing with Naruto's situation 'They still see him as the Fox nothing more'. The she turned around heading for the door; she opened it then spoke "I would do my best for him."

"I know, Anko. I trust you."

With that, he walked out, his silent guard behind him.

"He...trusts... me." Anko whispered softly. "He trusts me."

Ever since Orochimaru left, Anko had felt unworthy of being a shinobi. After multiple sessions with Yamanaka Ichiya, a special therapist the Hokage had assigned to her, Anko had discovered that her problem wasn't lack of that she was unworthy. No, she just needed someone to trust her again. Everything she had done since then, every battle she fought, every second she trained, it was in hopes that someone would trust her.

And now, the single most important person in the village had expressed his trust in her.

'I will show you that you made no mistake, Hokage-sama! I will prove your trust in me to be warranted!'

—DECISIONS—

As Naruto slept, in his subconscious several thoughts were running through his head. He had had enough and needed answers and by Kami-sama he was going to get them no matter the cost. He had made his decision no more would he be treated like trash, no moreould he be ignored or beaten! Someone wanted to mess with him? He would show them why that was a very bad idea.

He was going to be accepted one way or the other and going to be the strongest ninja ever in the world of shinobi and no one was going to stop him. No more was he going to run or hide. None of that he was going to stand and fight.

Decisions had been made.

Just a few minutes after his decisions were made he woke up groggily after regaining consciousness with his eyes adjusting to the light around him. He could see the white ceiling and walls around him. 'Hospital.' he thought with absolute certainty.

Glancing outside, he saw that it was still dark maybe early morning. He sat up and noticed the female kunoichi sleeping at the foot of his bed. She had purple hair, wore a fitted top and looked to be in her teens maybe late teens thereabout.

In his mind, he was stuck back at 'kunoichi.'

'Is she waiting for me to wake up just so I can watch her try to kill me? Well she won't get that chance. I won't let her.' He thought. And with that he got off the bed and walked to the window. Noting that he was in a room quite the distance off the ground, he decided to pull a trick he'd read from somewhere. Grabbing the bedsheet, he tied one end of it to the bed and the other to the second sheet on the bed. Spotting a third sheet tucked under the pillow, he added it to his improvised rope.

'Whoever set this room never accounted for this kind of thing.' He thought as he finished. 'The bed's too close to the window. Oh well, just as good for me.'

Satisfied with his work he went towards the window to look back at her. "Let's see her kill me when she can't find me." He said to himself before jumping out the window with his resolve set.

"Now let's get those answers and the puzzle solved."

If he had paused to think, he'd have wondered why a kunoichi would allow him to just leave like that. Shinobi didn't survive for so long being deep sleepers after all.

And if he had waited, he'd have watched the kunoichi twitch and moan in pain.

—Morning—

Anko stirred as a ray of light hit her face from the morning sun. "Ten more minutes sun am not ready yet." Then at that moment Kasumi walked into the room with a smile on her face, "Good morning An...ko" she was surprised to see an empty bed with sheets leading out of the room.

"Anko! Get Up!" she shouted.

Trained instincts kicked in as Anko immediately pulled out two kunai in a reverse grip, body tensed, stance balanced. "What's going on?"

"I don't know but look! He's gone!" Kasumi told her. Anko looked at the bed as her stance relaxed only for her body to tighten up again.

Not with preparedness.

No, her body tensed in fear.

The fear of failure, fear of rejection and most of all, fear of losing the trust of the one person who had trusted the in the first place.

Not even a day in and she had failed.

"Oh no!"

—DECISIONS—

Next time on 'DECISIONS'

"Leave me!" Anko screamed as she lashed out with her bloody fist. "Leave me alone!"

"Never." Kasumi whispered as she parried the punch and stepped on to hug her friend. "I'll never leave you Anko."

.

.

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"Anko!" Hiruzen called sharply as he felt her channelling chakra. "Don't go to him."

The confused, grief-stricken face she turned onto him almost made him retrench his statement.

Almost.

"He doesn't trust anyone, Anko. He needs time to calm down. When he does, you can return to him."

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'October Tenth.'

'Bingo.' He coughed again as he carried it over to the window he'd dropped in from to read under the moonlight streaming in from there. 'Now time to get those answers.'

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'Dear Naruto,

Yes. Damn right I know your name! Isn't that what a mom should do?

Anyway, I'm your mom. Kushina Uzumaki. I can't tell you too much here so I'll give you directions.

.

.

.

.

Welcome to the 'Hideout'.

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*Two Days Later*

A familiar figure could be seen walking up the stairs of the Hokage tower. He got to the Hokage's office and knocked. "Come in." a gruff voice of the Sandaime was heard from inside. The door opened to reveal a boy with blonde hair and blue eyes garbed in black clothing…..

Naruto just walked forward and sat in one of the chairs in front of the Hokages desk and put a picture on the table …."Naruto-kun where did you find this?"

Naruto looked at him and said, "Jiji we are about to have a nice long chat."

A/N

Ok in have been away from this fic for a while but wasn't my fault. School didn't let me breathe with all the work choked up on us with assignments, projects, and field work lemme leave it at that bothersome school. Anyway this is a rewrite of the official story with the aid of my pal or it this case Sempai , "The Ethereal Lord ", also check out his fanfic, "ALTERED" . It's a hook.

Now for some well-deserved sugar.

This Vasto signing out.

Ja ne


End file.
